A Book of Burlesque: Sketches of English Stage Travestie and ParodyAdams, William Davenport
History
A Book of Burlesque: Sketches of English Stage Travestie and Parody
Adams, William Davenport
Burlesque (Literature); English literature -- History and criticism; Parody
Boucicault's version of "Les Frères Corses" was produced in London by
Charles Kean in 1852, and was quickly followed by a travestie. This was
furnished by Gilbert Abbott a'Beckett and Mark Lemon at the Haymarket
(April, 1852), under the title of "O Gemini! or the Brothers of
Co(u)rse." Those who did not witness the production can nevertheless
conceive how droll Buckstone must have been as the Brothers, and how
well he was supported by Bland, also in a dual _rôle_--that of Meynard
and Montgiron (or Montegridiron, as he was called)--and by Mrs. L.
S. Buckingham as Chateau Renaud. The burlesque was not wholly of the
punning sort; it relied chiefly upon its travestie of the incidents
in the original play. Fabien was made to give (to the sound of "low
music") the following account of the extraordinary sympathy existing
between himself and his brother:--
Listen! this hour, five hundred years ago--
It may be more or less a second or so--
In the Dei Franchi family there died,
I think it was upon the female side,
The very greatest of our great-great-grandmothers,
Leaving ('tis often thus) two orphan brothers.
They took an oath, and signed it, as I think,
In blood--a horrid substitute for ink.
They swore if either was in any mess,
If either's landlord put in a distress,
Or of their goods came to effect a clearance,
They'd to each other enter an appearance.
_Maynard._ But you have never seen a ghost--
_Fabien._ That's true;
But I shall see one soon, by all that's blue:
For 't is a fact not easily explained,
The ghost has in the family remained,
We've tried all means--still he has stalked about,
And nobody could ever pay him out.
We let apartments, sir; but deuce a bit
Will the ghost take our notices to quit.
Later, just before Louis' apparition, Fabien says:--
I feel a pain about my ears and nose,
As if the latter had repeated blows.
I'm sure my brother's in a fearful row--
I shouldn't wonder if they're at it now.
I'll write to him. (_Writes_) "Dear brother, how's your eye?
Yours ever, Fabien. Send me a reply."
I'm sure he's subjected to fierce attacks,
For as I seal my note I feel the _whacks_!
H. J. Byron, who travestied nearly everything, of course did not let
the "Corsican Brothers" escape him, and his "Corsican 'Bothers'" duly
figured at the Globe in 1869. Messrs. Burnand and H. P. Stephens
followed, at the Gaiety in 1880, with "The Corsican Brothers & Co.,"
and in 1881 (at the Royalty) Mr. G. R. Sims made his _début_ as a
writer of burlesque with "The Of Course-Akin-Brothers, Babes in the
Wood." In this he began the action with Fabien and Louis as the Babes
and Chateau Renaud as the Wicked Uncle, introducing a certain Rosie
Posie, who is maid to Mme. dei Franchi and sweetheart of Alfred
Meynard. At the end of the first scene Father Time came on, and summed
up the situation in a song:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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